Tennys, Storm and Eden: Welcome to Wimbledon name game

Tennys Sandgren has just about the perfect name for tennis, generating as much excitement among fans as it does confusion in bars and coffee shops.

Tennis star Tennys, from Tennessee, is not the only one with an eye-catching first name doing battle on the Wimbledon lawns.

Storm Sanders, Eden Silva, Desirae Krawcyzk, Raven Klaasen and Astra Sharma have all been swinging their racquets at the All England Club.

Meanwhile there's competition coming up in the juniors with Blu Baker, Destinee Martins and Hurricane Black -- whose sister is called Tornado.

Sandgren, who is named after his Swedish great-grandfather, said there was no way a man called Tennys could take up tennis and flop.

"I at least had to be good at the sport if I was going to play," the 2018 Australian Open quarter-finalist told AFP.

His early enthusiasm for tennis came from his family being keen players -- but his name possibly helped.

"Who knows, maybe there's some sort of cosmic pull in that direction," said the world number 94, who made the Wimbledon fourth round on Saturday.

- Tennys? Really?! -
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"Or when I'm trying to introduce myself to someone of the opposite sex that I don't know. That gets a little tedious, and I haven't really figured a good way to transition that into meaningful conversation. If I'm explaining my name, I'm already on my heels!"
"The bartender's just laughing. He's like, 'OK, he's Tennys; he plays tennis. Fair enough'."
- Incoming Storm -
"I've seen them but we never spoke about our names," she said. Could they join forces in a whirlwind doubles partnership? "Maybe in the future, we'll have to see!"
- Sound of Eden -
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